Christmas......Finally!

I was sooo excited for Christmas this year because Austen is old enough to really get it. He was super into the whole Santa thing even though I didn't really push it. On Christmas Eve we had an amazing and fun dinner at my sister's house. My Dad read the bible story and then we let the kids open a present.

Austen opening his customary pajamas and slippers.

He got about halfway through opening his gift and then he requested the vacuum to clean up his mess. He's so not normal!


Christmas morning was so amazing. I woke Austen up by telling him I thought Santa had come and he needed to come look . He was so excited. He jumped out of bed not quite fully awake and when he got out into the family room he was bewildered! Santa had set up all the toys so they were ready to play with and the dinosaurs he left were front and center. Austen just stood there for a while taking it all in. It was seriously a moment I will never forget. You could just see the wheels turning and it was so adorable.

Austen trying to process the scene.

He got the customary orange.

Pulling the goods out of the stocking.

We let him open a few presents before we had to take off for extended family stuff. Here he is having his new buzz lightyear toy help him open another present.

One of my favorite pictures ever!!! He's telling Grandpa thank-you for his present.

Austen and daddy in their Santa hats.

Austen got so many toys that he left 3 unopened presents under the tree. I kept telling him he could open them, but he said "no, all done". I think that means we did good, he just wanted to play with the stuff he already opened. I'm saving the rest for his birthday!!!

SANTA

I have been morally opposed to Santa since before I can even remember. I was the kid that told other kids the truth about Santa and I was seriously appalled that parents would "lie" to their children about it. I never thought I would be one of those parents one day. I really didn't want my kids believing and I certainly never planned on perpetuating that belief.

Well here we are. I now have a child and when it came to the Santa debate Brian won out. He was holding firm and not believing was NOT an option.

Austen has been wanting to go see Santa for weeks now. We did a walk by at the mall, but that wasn't good enough. I kept telling him that he would have to sit on Santa's lap and that he would be touching him (he hates strangers touching him or even being in his space) but that did not deter him. Then I started telling him that Santa was busy making toys for Christmas Eve, but that didn't work either. So finally I just decided to let the poor kid visit Santa and get it over with. I was sure he would cry and scream and hate it.

I was wrong...

He loved every second!
Isn't that a good Santa too?

The picture says it all. He wasn't scared one bit!!! When he first sat down he was so in awe that he wasn't sure what to do so he froze. One of the elves kept trying to get him to look over for a picture, so he would just move his eyes and not his head. He finally realized it was ok to move and was smiling and staring at Santa. He told Santa he wanted new dinosaurs (he saw some at Target yesterday) and then we were off.

He has been on cloud nine ever since. He will seriously not quit talking about Santa. He even keeps telling me that his hands are cold just so he can have "glubbs" (gloves) like Santa.

Have An Opinion, Will Ya???

My pictures won't upload today, so you're only getting a written update this post.

Austen is looking really old lately.....I think I said that in my last post, but it's freaking me out and I obviously can't get past it.
He's also picking up some new interests and silly little personality things.

He loves fruit a lot.....that's pretty much all he eats lately. That and turkey sausage.
He loves to play rough with his Daddy!
He loves to play with his cousins too!
His new favorite pastime is to take a shower with Dad.
He has a weird new obsession.....he picks sock lint from between his toes.
He says "bye see ya later mom" a LOT!
He loves to sing the song Jingle Bells.
And
He wants to be naked all the time!!!

I've been letting him run around naked a lot. What do I care if he doesn't want any clothes on??? Well yesterday he was playing naked while I cleaned up the kitchen. All of the sudden he started frantically crying, so I ran in the office and discovered he had pooped. EVERYWHERE. I'll spare you the details because it's too gross for me to even want to re-tell it. Lets just say that's the end of the naked phase at our house!

Down For The Count

We just visited the Dr. for Austen's last well-child visit and got some surprising news......Austen's head is not as big (in comparison to other children) as previously thought. It's actually only in the 63rd percentile, not the 95 I was expecting. Also surprising.....he's not a shorty. 50th percentile there and with his Nelson genes (if he even got any) that's not bad.

We had to do the dreaded shots this time, which I was a little worried about because now he can talk and you never want your child asking you why you're hurting them. Luckily we didn't get any of that, but what we did get was worse, much worse.

He had a bad reaction to his DTaP. He had a pretty high fever, no appetite, and some disgusting diapers.....I'll spare you the details. His leg swelled up to the point that it was about 50% bigger than the other leg and it was all red and splotchy. The poor thing could barely walk. He just shuffled along. It was a rough day and a couple of bad nights, but he seems to be feeling better now. He just has a swollen bump on his leg and a huge bruise. He's never had a reaction to shots and he's never even really been sick, so this was pretty hard on us. I hated seeing him like that!

He's back to his old self again now though....in fact the first night he was feeling better he was bouncing off the walls and very happy to be running again.

He just stayed there wrapped up in his blankie.

This is him this morning....back to his old tricks.

Live Nativity

WOW!!!
I really had no idea anyone besides my Dad read this blog, but after that last post I now know that I have at least 5 loyal readers.
I should monetize this thing with all that traffic!!

Thanks for everyone's input, it wasn't helpful at all because everyone picked a different picture, but thanks!
I finally just picked a card that had 3 pictures so I only had to narrow it down to 3 instead of 1.
It was still hard, but I think they turned out just fine.
(Although we got them today and Brian said "that's the one you picked? You made such a big deal about it and then you pick THAT one?")
You should be getting one shortly.
Hopefully you like it more than Brian does.
(It doesn't really matter anyway......people open them and then throw them away.)

A couple weeks ago we visited a live nativity with my whole family. It's something we do every year and love. Austen was really into it this year, so that made it fun.
They have real animals that you can pet, so that pretty much did it for him.
He was petting goats, sheep, a baby cow, and even a giant camel.
It was cold and dark and none of the pictures I took turned out except one.
So here's Austen petting a giant camel:

Decisions, Decisions.....

My amazing sister (who I've dubbed the family photographer) took some really cute family pictures for us yesterday. They are so cute, that I'm having trouble deciding which one to use for our Christmas card. So I've decided to send it to a vote. Here they are, so pick your fav and tell me in the comments section.

Go On And Smile

This is the look I get now when I pull out my camera

If that doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will.
Happy Friday!!!